Jabeur sets up Rybakina meeting in Abu Dhabi Open last eight

Tunisian Ons Jabeur reached the last eight of the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open by defeating Japanese qualifier Wakana Sonobe 6-3, 6-3 at the International Tennis Centre, Zayed Sports City on Wednesday.

Jabeur overcame Sonobe, the newly-crowned Australian Open juniors champ, in an hour 14 minutes, converting five break points.

Jabeur, ranked No 33, will face Kazakh Elena Rybakina, the top seed, next. The two have played five matches against each other already, with the Tunisian leading 3-2 in the head-to-head.

In the previous round of the Abu Dhabi tournament, the Tunisian won against Latvian Jelena Ostapenko, the No 7 seed (7-6 (4), 7-5).

Wakana Sonobe beat Chinese Yue Yuan (6-4, 6-3) in the previous round of the Abu Dhabi tournament.

Abu Dhabi WTA 500, other second-round results (International Tennis Centre, Zayed Sports City, hard, USD 1.064.510, most recent results first):

• Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova vs. Magda Linette
• Linda Noskova vs. Paula Badosa
• Ashlyn Krueger vs. Daria Kasatkina: wednesday
• Leylah Fernandez (8) beat Lulu Sun: 6-0, 6-3
• Elena Rybakina beat Katie Volynets (Q): 2-6, 6-4, 6-4
• Marketa Vondrousova (WC) beat Yulia Putintseva (4): 6-2, 6-3
• Belinda Bencic (WC) beat Veronika Kudermetova (LL): 6-0, 6-0

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